Wnt/β-catenin signaling in heart regeneration (Chris Park)

posted Aug 20, 2015, 10:32 PM by Chris Park
     The purpose of the article was to mainly understand the role of Wnt/β-catenin in the repairing of heart tissue after damage. It first gives us a lot of introduction and background information needed about heart tissue regeneration. All organism can regenerate damaged tissue but by each organism it depends on our ability which tissue we can regenerate.          Humans, cannot regenerate heart tissue. And sciencist, including Gunes Ozhan and Gilbert Weidinger were questioning how we can make that possible and be later used in regenerative therapies. Lower vertebrae animals can regenerate heart tissue, like zebrafish and newts. Other animals like neonatal mice lose their ability to do so after seven days. And after careful research scientist see that Wnt/β-catenin plays an important role of helping the regeneration of tissue by channeling Wnt proteins, β-catenin, an effector molecule, fibrosis and many other important proteins. 
     This research was not about how the Wnt/β-catenin can help for heart regeneration but rather about more in-depth research about Wnt/β-catenin to know more about how it works so other scientist can learn new learned information to help with regeneration. We take a look into animals including zebrafish to see how the Wnt/β-catenin helps in generation heart tissue while we have limited abilities. The zebrafish able to regenerate after removal of apex of the ventricle, mosaic ablation, and cryoinjury-induced necrosis and recover within 30-120 days with no scar. Wnt/β-catenin might be different in a mammal heart, but in conclusion, the Wnt/β-catenin plays a complex and important role in heart tissue regeneration and while lower vertebrae animals have to ability to regenerate, mammals, including humans cannot.

Ozhan, Gunes, and Gilbert Weidinger. "Wnt/β-catenin Signaling in Heart Regeneration." Cell Regeneration. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Aug. 2015.